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“You Don’t Get Into Graffiti, It Gets Into You”
The above words are those of a friend of a Toronto graffiti artist who was killed on Tuesday, while tagging a train car near Dupont and Christie. Anthony Reinhart writing of the tragedy in the Globe, says Bardia Bryan Zargham, or Alpha, was one of the city’s most prolific graffiti artists, one whose tags covered the city and was well known for his ubiquity. The Star quotes a graffiti eradication program officer as saying this is the first time there has been a graffiti-related death in the city since he took over the program in 2000. Perhaps that’s why this death is so shocking. Graffiti covers TO in all sorts of hard to reach places, but one rarely thinks about the danger accrued the artist in spending an hour to put the mural there. TOist is saddened by the loss of Alpha and hopes for increased safety amongst our city’s urban artists.